Grade 4:
Core Content Committee (CCC) Representative: Karen Roberts kroberts@pccsd.net
Contributors:
Contents:
Fourth Grade Units
Instructional Resources
Formative Assessment
http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/index.html
Standards & Model Curriculum
ODE Revised Science Standards
Inquiry Focus:
Science Inquiry and Application During the years of PreK-4, all students must become proficient in the use of the following scientific processes, with appropriate laboratory safety techniques, to construct their knowledge and understanding in all science content areas:
• Observe and ask questions about the natural environment;
• Plan and conduct simple investigations;
• Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses;
• Use appropriate mathematics with data to construct reasonable explanations;
• Communicate about observations, investigations and explanations; and
• Review and ask questions about the observations and explanations of others.

Sample Student Inquiry Investigation: (Describe your sample inquiry here)

1.Topic

Electricity, Heat and Matter

2. Student Research Investigation Question

How does mass change during a physical and chemical change (ice melting, Alka-Seltzer in water)?

3. Variables (dependent and independent)

dependent: mass of water, tablet, ice
independent: heat, location

4. Hypothesis

They will weigh more, less, or the same.

5. Procedure

Students will weigh water and Alka-Seltzer separately, then dissolve the tablet in the water and weigh it again.
Alternate: students will weigh an ice cube frozen, then melt it and weigh it again.
Alternate: students will weigh a cookie, then break it apart to crumbs and weigh it again.
Students should come to the conclusion that the mass remains the same no matter how the item changes.


Units: Content and I Can Statements


Teaching Sequence:

  • Fall Kit: Water
  • Winter Kit: Magnetism and Electricity
  • Spring Kit: Landforms

Fall Kit:

Life Science: Earth's Living History

This topic focuses on using fossil evidence and living organisms to observe that suitable habitats depend upon a combination of biotic and abiotic factors.

Foss Kit: Water http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/Water/index.html

Changes in an organism's environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes harmful.
  • I can determine if removing or adding plants to an area increases or decreases erosion.
  • I can describe major changes in Ohio’s environments over time and the organisms supported in each (e.g., oceanic, glacial, wetlands, forests).
  • I can explain the changes that occurred in the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem.
  • I can answer How does this impact other organisms in that environment?

Fossils can be compared to one another and to present day organisms according to their similarities and differences.
  • I can observe fossils and compare them to similar plants and animals that live today, using simple classification schemes.
  • I can observe of fossils and infer the environmental conditions that existed when the fossils were formed (e.g., fish fossils would indicate a body of water existed at the time the fossils formed).
  • I can experiment with making fossils to determine some of the necessary (living and nonliving) conditions for making fossils and to determine if similar conditions exist today.
  • I can propose and test multiple ways that living things with soft body parts can leave fossil evidence.

Winter Kit:

Physical Science: Electricity, Heat, and Matter


This topic focuses on the conservation of matter and the processes of energy transfer and transformation, especially as they apply to heat and electrical energy.

Foss Kit: Magnetism and Electricity http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/MagnetismandElectricity/index.html

The total amount of matter is conserved when it undergoes a change.
  • I can recognize that the amount of matter stays constant during any change.
  • I can explain why the volume of water decreases when placed in an open container and left to sit for an extended period of time.
  • I can investigate what happens to the total amount of mass* during many types of changes (e.g., ice melting, salt dissolving, paper tearing, candle burning, Alka-Seltzer® in water).

Energy can be transformed from one form to another or can be transferred from one location to another.
  • I can recognize that energy can cause motion or create change.
  • I can design and construct a device that causes a small cart to roll and involves energy transfers between four objects (e.g., push a ball off a table so it falls on an object that releases a rubber-band cart).
  • I can recognize that a working circuit requires a continuous loop of electrical conductors.
  • I can compare and contrast circuits that light the bulbs with circuits that do not light the bulbs.
  • I can build a circuit that contains two light bulbs.
  • I can analyze the differences between working and nonworking circuits and determine patterns and trends in the experimental evidence.
  • I can design and construct a switch that can turn a light on and off in a circuit.

Spring Kit:

Earth and Space Science: Earth’s Surface

This topic focuses on the variety of processes that shape and reshape Earth’s surface.
Foss Kit: Landforms http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/Landforms/index.html
Earth’s surface has specific characteristics and landforms that can be identified.
  • I can recognize that 70 percent of Earth’s surface is water.
  • I can identify common landforms from maps or graphics.
  • I can identify the processes that can change the surface of Earth.
  • I can locate areas that have been formed through deposition and erosion using topographic or aerial maps.
  • I can plan, build and use a model (such as a small-scale stream table) that can demonstrate the formation of a landform or feature that formed through contact with water.

The surface of Earth changes due to weathering.
  • I can identify weathering as processes that change rock at or near Earth’s surface.
  • I can recognize that weathering can occur at different rates.
  • I can recognize that water, wind, pollution/gases in the air, ice movement, earthquakes, volcanoes, freezing/thawing and plant action can all weather rock and soil.
  • I can differentiate between weathering and erosion.
  • I can plan and implement an experiment to model and compare different types of weathering and/or rates of weathering that can occur.

The surface of Earth changes due to erosion and deposition.
  • I can identify erosion as a process that transports rock, soil or sediment to a new location.
  • I can identify deposition as the settling or coming to rest of transported rock, soil or sediment.
  • I can differentiate between weathering and erosion.
  • I can compare and contrast erosion and deposition.
  • I can build a model to investigate the movement of glacial ice that creates a pattern of glacial movement that can be recognized by a variety of glacial deposits or erosion.




Additional INQUIRY Instructional Resources (Lessons, Assessments, Video, Content Information, etc.):

This document has the correlations between the Foss kits and the content standards.
http://www.delta-education.com/science/foss/correlations/Ohio.pdf


Earth and Space Science: Earth's Surface
  • The surface of Earth changes due to weathering.
  • The surface of Earth changes due to erosion and deposition.
a lesson plan about weathering: Smoothing out the Rough Spots
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview?LPid=2188

Science Formative Assessment Strategies & Probes by Unit (Page Keeley)

Life:

Topic.................
Assessment Probe..................... (Title,Volume,Page)
Assessment Strategy....... (Name, #, Page)
Teaching Ideas................................................
Environment change
Habitat Change/Vol 2/p.143 - 148










Earth:

Topic.................
Assessment Probe..................... (Title/Volume/Page)
Assessment Strategy....... (Name, #, Page)
Teaching Ideas................................................
Landforms, Weathering and Erosion
Mountaintop Fossil/Vol 2/p. 165 - 170


Weathering, Erosion, Deposition
Beach Sand/Vol 1/p. 163 - 168


Weathering, Erosion, Landforms
Mountain Age/Vol 1/p. 169 - 175


Physical:

Topic.................
Assessment Probe..................... (Title/Volume/Page)
Assessment Strategy....... (Name, #, Page)
Teaching Ideas................................................
Energy Transfer
Ice-Cold Lemonade/Vol 2/p. 77 - 82


Energy Transfer
Mixing Water/Vol 2/p. 83 - 89



Conservation of Matter
Ice Cubes in a Bag/Vol 1/p. 49 - 54


Conservation of Matter
Lemonade/Vol 1/p. 55 - 60


Conservation of Matter
Cookie Crumbles/Vol 1/p. 61 - 65


Conservation of Matter
Hot and Cold Balloons/Vol 3/p. 45 - 50



Literature Integration (Reading Streets, etc.):